Masonic Villas goes Monochrome

After dealing with the trauma of the landing chandelier being fitted (after a month of set backs and six fairies – you kind of gotta read the post to understand what i’m on about there) this is going to be a nice and simple blog post.

Oh good.

See, now the light is up, it means we can get on with the fun stuff. Fun stuff like getting paint on the walls and seeing the backdrop for our new rooms. You can read more about the colour palette for the whole project here, but for today i’m just going to show you what a difference colour can make to the overall feel of a room.

The only progress we’d made at this point was updating the ceiling light. And let me tell you, that was one million times more simple than fitting the light on the landing. Fo sho.

On my next visit, we’d made great strides. Well, the decorator had….

DIVINE!

Some rooms are just made to go black. This is one of them. I adore it. It took my breath away. It really did.

The original arched wooden doors look stunning against this monochrome palette. A clean and contemporary take on Victorian architecture. We didn’t need to make the room look larger, or the ceilings look higher by painting the frieze and coving in with the walls. We kept with tradition.

The missing skirting around the chimney breast was originally going to be recreated by my joiners. However, I made a u-turn and decided to remove the skirting completely and plaster down to the floor.

That skirting had been on for over 100 years so you can imagine the level of forced required to take it off. The plasterer had his work cut out to get that filled and skimmed.

And after…

Sooo much better. A much cleaner, contemporary look making the chimney breast stand tall.

Before

After

Farrow and Ball’s Off Black has super subtle undertones of blue which we kept spotting as the sun came and went. Really nice.

The radiators are staying white this time. I won’t be messing with these original reclaimed beauties.

Seriously can’t wait to start styling those shelves. Anything that goes on there is going to “pop” right off. Eeeee!

So what do you think so far? Do you think black was a good/bad move? I can’t wait to show you more after my next project visit. But…. I’m off on a family holiday this week so i’ll be back next week with more interiors eye candy.

Amazing what a change in paint colour can do to a room! I love the Off Black here. You’re right, some rooms are just made to be painted black! It really highlights all the gorgeous architectural features and makes the room look more alive. And I love what you did with the chimney breast.

Ahhh reading this today from your insta stories July 18, I was just about to say have a lovely holiday but not sure if that was back when you wrote the post?
I’m new to insta and still finding my way around, I just wanted to say how inspirational I am finding your work – it’s truly fabulous. X